Rhode Island · Nonprofit
ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY
ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY (Rhode Island) receives grants from 180 organizations whose IRS filings report $27,073,599 to it, the largest being NELLIE MAE EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC ($5,850,117). 93 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $246M
- Funders on record
- 180
- Grants received
- $27M
- Net assets
- $170M
What Roger Williams University does
Mission
At Roger Williams University, students are prepared to be thinkers and doers ready to solve challenging problems with innovative solutions. RWU offers robust offerings of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across eight schools of study including Rhode Island's only law school, with campuses on the coast of Bristol and in the heart of Providence, R.I. With small classrooms and a focus on undergraduate and graduate research and community engagement, a Roger Williams education blends the strength of liberal arts and professional studies, providing all students with the depth and breadth of interdisciplinary thinking and well-rounded knowledge necessary to succeed in our interconnected, global world. RWU is committed to strengthening society through engaged scholarship so that students graduate with the ability to think critically and apply the practical skills that today's employers demand.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Higher Education: Roger Williams University (the "University"), located in Bristol and Providence, Rhode Island, is a private, coeducational university with programs in the liberal arts and the professions that includes the Feinstein Schools of Humanities, Arts and Education and Social and Natural Sciences, the Cummings School of Architecture, the Mario J. Gabelli School of Business, the School of Engineering, Computing and Construction Management, the School of Justice Studies and University College. The University offers more than 50 majors and 70 minors of undergraduate study and 13 graduate degrees, along with numerous minors and certificate programs. The University is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, Inc, among other accrediting bodies.
$226,268,359 spentof which $85,039,930 as grants$223,568,794 earned by the program100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $226,268,359.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $273M to $299M (+9%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 2% · 2018 3% · 2019 3% · 2020 4% · 2021 5% · 2022 6% · 2023 3% · 2024 3% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
7% of ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 66 funders, grant income rose $361k → $5.4M.
21 of 180 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 180 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
54% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 24% · 2019 19% · 2020 47% · 2021 31% · 2022 24% · 2023 18% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
36% of ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY draws 94% of its grant income from funders outside Rhode Island, across 28 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY's funding base is broadening — from 21 funders to 66 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $37.7M on record — $37.5M federal, $185k state.
- Department of Education$17.1M
- Environmental Protection Agency$10.6M
- National Science Foundation$4.0M
- Department of Defense$2.5M
- Department of Commerce$1.6M
- Department of Justice$1.3M
- MA$118k
- OR$34k
- VT$21k
- DE$7k
- NJ$5k
- FL$478
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Rhode Island
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Roger Williams University School of Law · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY?
- ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY (Rhode Island) receives grants from 180 organizations whose IRS filings report $27,073,599 to it, the largest being NELLIE MAE EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC ($5,850,117). 93 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY have?
- IRS filings report 180 organizations giving $27,073,599 in grants to ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY, 93 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY?
- NELLIE MAE EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $5,850,117 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Rhode Island. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Roger Williams University →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 180 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing